Twitter Inc. has acquired social media talent agency The Niche Project Inc. (Niche). Although the price was not officially disclosed, reports suggest that it was $30 million with possible earn-outs and employment contracts taking the price closer to $60 million. New York and San Francisco-based Niche is self described as a “leading network for social network ...

Microsoft has officially confirmed that it has acquired Sunrise Atelier Inc., the maker of the Sunrise calendar application. The acquisition price was not disclosed, but was rumored to be around $100 million when news of the acquisition first surfaced February 5th. Sunrise offers a suite of calendar products for both mobile and desktop users that connects with and ...

Twitter Inc. Chief Financial Officer Anthony Noto had his Twitter account hacked Tuesday, possibly highlighting once again the microblogging platforms ongoing security issues. Noto’s account, established in 2009, starting tweeting spam messages at mid-morning PST, with targeted messages at users that included “this pic of you is funny!” and “I can’t stop laughing!” along with ...

The United States Government is setting up a dedicated cybersecurity agency following a year of high profile hacking attacks in 2014. The new agency, to be called the Cyber Threat and Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC) falls under the control of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and will centrally coordinate analysis of cyber ...

Google has extended its Knowledge Graph into health with the search giant to offer curated medical answers in health search results. The feature works like similar results from Google’s Knowledge Graph in where you ask a question and get an immediate result at the top of the search results, versus links to sites where you can ...

Kenyan Bitcoin exchange BitPesa has raised a $1.1 million in a second round of funding that was led by Pantera Capital and included Crypto Currency Partners, Stephens Investment Management, Bitcoin Opportunity Corp., and Future/Perfect Ventures. As part of the deal Dan Morehead of Pantera Capital will take a seat on Bitpesa’s Board of Directors. Founded in ...

Popular image sharing service Imgur has celebrated its sixth birthday with an announcement that they will be dumping their Pro service, and making the previously paid features available for all users for free. In a blog post the company said they’ve “decided that you’re the one who deserves a gift [hence] we’re phasing out Pro subscriptions…and ...

The creator of the 3D printed version of Left Shark, now of Super Bowl fame, has bitten back at Katy Perry over the copyright claim lawyers representing the singer lodged last week. Fernando Sosa has retained law professor/lawyer Chris Sprigman, the same professor who was quoted last week as saying that Left Shark is not copyrightable because ...

Hong Kong-based Bitcoin marketplace MyCoin is reported to have collapsed after taking $387 million in customer money, in what appears to be yet another HYIP scam. The company offered an eclectic mix of services, saying on its about page that it “provide user [sic] with integrated Bitcoin online entertainment services as a strategic objective to focus on ...

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has invested $590 million in a little known Chinese phone maker Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. Based in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, Meizu is said to be one of the top ten smartphone manufacturers in China and sold 1.5 million smartphones in January 2015. Although primarily focused on its local market in China, the company ...